Who says progress can't be sad? The consolidation you're talking about was a massive disruption, which brought a lot of change to families and societies. Most

Who says progress can't be sad? The consolidation you're talking about was a massive disruption, which brought a lot of change to families and societies. Most kinds of change are painful even when they lead to greater efficiency. While the transformation of agriculture has led to great prosperity, prosperity also brings hierarchy; i.e. more unequal social forms. Much of the US has transitioned from a relatively agrarian and egalitarian society to one that is much richer, but also less equal and more divided, in the last 150 years. There are clear tradeoffs in that transition, which some people might call the march of progress. Ways of life die off, and those who knew them in childhood often regret their passage, regardless of whether the world's wheat production increases.